


Clichés

by aces_low



Series: Unlocked Doors [4]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Romance, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 17:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13686786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: Ray and Nate's first Valentine's Day together





	Clichés

**Author's Note:**

> Nate mentioned in Steady As We Go about Valentine's Day, here's what happened.
> 
> Takes place between Steady as we go and Waiting Game. 
> 
> Ray is a Sophomore  
> Nate is a Junior

“Where is he?” Ray asks as he slams the front door shut.

Brad and Poke both look over at him, unamused by him slamming their door, before Brad turns back to the TV and asks, “who?”

“Fucking Cupid, who do you think?”

He throws himself down on the couch next to Poke, crossing his arms over his chest as he pouts.

“Well, I don’t keep track of Cupid’s schedule, but I’m pretty sure Nate is still in class,” Poke tells him.

Which, Ray knew, he’s just flustered and irritated and has had something of a constant blush on his face all day long. Something he is not accustomed to dealing with.

“What’s wrong? Nate forget to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day?” Poke asks.

“I wish,” Ray says, throwing his hands up. “No, we agreed we weren’t gonna do anything today except go to dinner or something, but apparently he lied.”

 

It had started from the minute he’d woken up.

He’d stayed in the dorms the night before, something he’s been doing less and less lately. Even so, when he’d opened his eyes and turned toward his nightstand there had been a large coffee and a heart-shaped doughnut sitting there. He’d blinked at it in confusion, looking over at Walt who was still fast asleep. The coffee, that had still been steaming hot, was in a bright pink cup with ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ handwritten on it in block letters, and the napkin that the doughnut had been sitting on was the same.

Ray had felt himself smile and almost blush at the thoughtful surprise. It went against their agreement to not do anything for Valentine’s Day, but it was sweet and Ray wasn’t about to turn down free coffee and breakfast.

He’d texted Nate then, a simple ‘good morning’ and then after a minute he sent another that had said, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’. Nate had responded in kind, adding a kissy face emoji to the end just to make Ray's eyes roll.

All that would have been fine, just a sweet, simple gift that Ray appreciated, except it hadn’t ended there.

He had almost missed it as he was leaving to go to class, but something red had caught his eye and he’d turned to see that Walt and his door had been decorated with red, paper hearts, taped up all around it.

Ray cringed as he approached the big red heart in the center of the door, this one decorated with lace around the edge. Written on it, in what Ray knew for a fact was Nate’s handwriting, was,

Be my Valentine?  
\- Your Secret Admirer

He’d quickly tore the heart down from the door, shoving it into his pocket. This time he definitely knew he'd been blushing. He’d looked around the hallway, a few other doors had some decorations on them, but nothing like what Nate had done.

 

He’d texted Nate before his first class began, with, ‘secret admirer Nate, really?’

Nate had only responded with, ‘you have a secret admirer? Should I be jealous?’

Ray had rolled his eyes again.

 

Walt had texted later, asking if Ray had seen their door and wondering what was going on and Ray had quickly let him know that it was just his boyfriend being weird. He hadn’t wanted Walt to get his hopes up that Brad was going to abandon his stupid friends-with-benefits idea and come sweep Walt off his feet today.

Regardless of the texts, Ray hadn’t thought too much more about Nate’s Valentines, other than when his fingers would brush against the paper heart in his pocket.

So, Ray hadn’t been at all prepared for it, when right before his second class of the day was about to start, a guy walked into the classroom, holding a small, white teddy bear that was holding a little, red heart. 

“I’m looking for a Ray Person?” the guy had announced to the class and Ray had felt the eyes of a few of his classmates turn towards him.

He’d quickly gotten up, snatching the teddy bear out of the guy's hand and made his way back to his seat, trying to ignore the blush he could feel on his skin, as well as his professor’s raised eyebrows and small grin. 

Class had started as soon as he was seated and Ray tried to ignore the teddy bear he still held tightly in his hand for several minutes until he could tell that everyone had lost interest in him and his childish Valentine’s Day gift.

Finally, he’d looked down at the bear, and realized there had been a small note attached to the back of the red heart that had been sewn between the bear’s hands.

He’d pulled the note out and saw that there was a poem written on it, again, in Nate’s handwriting:

‘Roses are Red  
This bear is White  
I hope you will let me  
Blow you tonight.’

Ray had let out something of a snort that had made the guy in front of him turn around. He’d sunk down a little lower in his seat then, shoving the poem into his pocket alongside his paper heart and continued clutching his new bear in his hand all through class.

Halfway through class, there had been an interruption, another guy holding a large bouquet of flowers. Ray had wanted to scream until the guy read out girl’s name. He’d sighed in relief, feeling marginally grateful that Nate had at least planned it so that he’d gotten his gift before class had started instead of right in the middle. So, while his professor hadn’t seemed to mind Ray’s gift, she’d looked completely unamused as the girl had walked back to her desk, the large display of flowers somewhat covering her bright, red face.

 

Ray had decided against texting Nate once he was out of class, unable to find words for the combination of annoyance and delight he’d been feeling.

Which had only been made worse when he walked back into his dorm room to find a single red rose placed on his pillow, Nate had even made his bed for him. There wasn’t a note attached this time, but he knew.

That had been enough to get Ray to storm over to the house looking for his boyfriend.

 

Poke and Brad look delighted and amused as Ray lists off all the things Nate has done for him today, and Ray just feels more and more flustered as he tells them.

“He really went all out, huh?” Poke asks, leaning back with a smirk.

“Yeah, and now I look like an asshole cause I didn’t do anything for him, which is what we agreed we were gonna do.” Ray knows he sounds a little shrill, but he’s never had anything like this happen to him before and he’s not really sure how to react to it.

“You know Nate isn’t gonna care that you didn’t do anything for him,” Brad says. “That’s what you get for dating a sappy romantic like him.”

Ray glares at his best friend before a knock at the door startles him out of his annoyance.

They all look at each other in confusion, none of them used to people knocking on the perpetually unlocked front door, before Ray sighs and stands, reaching for the door.

There’s a woman holding a nice bouquet of flowers, and Ray already knows what she’s going to say before she says it.

“I have a delivery for Ray Person.”

Ray tries not to take his frustration out on her, instead, directing his glare at the flowers in her hands. He’s genuinely contemplating telling her that there’s no one here by that name, when Poke speaks up.

“Why the fuck are flowers being delivered here for you?”

“How the hell should I know?” Ray asks, then reaches to take the flowers from her now that the jig is up.

“Well, apparently Nate knew he’d be here,” Brad is saying as Ray thanks the girl and closes the door behind her.

“That just means you’re here too much,” Poke says.

Ray ignores him and sets the bouquet down on the coffee table. He's never really been a flower person and he has no idea what kind of flowers are in it, all he knows is that they’re not roses, which he’s pretty thankful for.

“You’re blushing,” Brad says, and Ray whips his head up to look at Brad's smirk.

“Fuck off.” He scrubs at his cheeks for a moment, feeling like they’ve been overheated all day today, trying to ignore the gleeful looks on his so-called friend’s faces.

When they don’t stop grinning, he picks up his flowers and stomps his way to Nate’s room, he doesn’t need to deal with their teasing while he’s trying to wrap his brain around what’s been going on. 

He’d meant what he said when he’d told Nate that he thinks Valentine’s Day is just commercialized bullshit, it forces people to act in ways they normally wouldn’t or don’t even want to just because of some traditions created by Hallmark and chocolate companies. He doesn’t need shallow, romantic gestures to feel like his relationship with Nate is meaningful. He really would have been perfectly fine with them just going out to eat, or not even doing that, just ordering a pizza and exchanging blowjobs on the couch. But still, he can’t deny the fact that he’d enjoyed all the little things Nate had done today, and he feels like such a lovesick idiot, and kind of a sellout.

He’s contemplating this dichotomy in his brain, staring at his flowers as though they might know the answer, when Nate walks in.

He has a cautious grin on his face, probably since he hasn’t heard from Ray since this morning and Ray decides to only make him stew in his not knowing for just another few seconds before he speaks up.

“You’re a terrible poet.”

Nate laughs at that before taking a seat next to Ray on the bed, apparently deciding it’s safe to do so.

“We said we weren’t gonna do anything,” Ray tells him.

“I know,” Nate says, kissing his cheek and takes Ray’s hand in his.

“Then what the hell, Nate?”

“I promise, next year, it’ll just be dinner.”

“You know I’m never going to believe you again, right? Anytime we ‘agree’ to not do gifts or something I’m gonna have to get you a gift anyway, because apparently, that’s what we do,” Ray says, leaning against Nate’s side, despite his annoyed tone.

“This was just a one-time thing,” Nate swears, wrapping his arm around Ray and squeezing him.

“Of course it is.”

“No, really. When we talked about it the first time, I realized you’d never really experienced all the cliche Valentine’s Day stuff, all you got were those Middle School mandatory Valentines. I just wanted you to get to experience all the bullshit Valentine’s things once before we decided we didn’t want to celebrate it.”

For about the 100th time today, Ray feels his face heat up, and he quickly turns his head to bury it in Nate’s neck so that he can’t see it.

Nate isn’t wrong. He’d never been one of the kids in high school who had Valentine’s delivered to him in class, he never came to school to find his locker decorated by a significant other. He’s never received flowers before today in his life, and he’s never had anyone put significant time and energy into doing something for him without expecting anything in return. And in high school, as he’d scoffed at all the kids around him who had been getting overly invested in the stupid holiday, he’d never for a second considered that he’d find someone who would be willing to do any of that for him, and that he’d actually, kind of like it.

He looks up then and quickly pulls Nate into a kiss, trying to pour every bit of appreciation he has into it. Just to be safe though, he moves back just a fraction to say, “thank you,” against Nate’s lips.

Nate responds by kissing him again.

Before he knows it, he’s on his back, Nate’s arms framing him and he’s feeling just a little bit dizzy from it all.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Nate says when they break apart for air.

“Same to you, you overly romantic nerd.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am still working on the next installment (taking place after Bring Us Down) but wanted to get this little thing out, since it's Valentine's Day and all.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
